Unbreak My Hart (The Notorious Harts 4)

‘Don’t say it.’ Damn it, I can’t help myself. I reach across, putting my hand over hers. Her eyes fly to the gesture, staring at our hands. ‘Don’t say you’re just the daughter of a woman their dad slept with. It’s not true; that’s not how it works.’ I slide my thumb across hers. ‘You have three brothers and they want you in their lives. They want you to be a part of their family. I don’t understand why you’d deny yourself that.’

‘That’s because you can’t possibly imagine what my life was like.’

‘You’re wrong. I don’t have to have lived it to see what you went through and to understand why you resent Ryan. And maybe even your mom, a bit, for the choices she made. But Jagger, Theo and Holden haven’t done anything wrong here. As soon as they found out about you—’

‘They dispatched a friend to snoop around.’

I expel an impatient breath. ‘As a precaution and a precursor to meeting you for themselves, yes. They want you in their family but they’re not stupid. They’re three of the wealthiest men in the world, and they’re used to managing the public’s perception of their lives, the media intrusion, and they’re used to people wanting things from them.’

‘So they thought I’d what? Show up on their doorsteps and demand a seat at the boardroom table? That I’d want a controlling stake of Hart Brothers Industries?’ She makes a guffawing noise. ‘I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.’

‘They wanted to do some research so they could work out how to move forward. So far as I know, there’s been no talk of denying you anything that’s your birthright.’

Her face drains of colour. ‘I don’t want it.’ The words are bitter, laced with hatred and rage. ‘I don’t need money. I don’t need them.’

‘Avery—’

‘I had a family too, Barrett! I had a mom, and she died. I’m not choosing to be alone—I am alone, and that’s okay. I’m not going to betray her by getting all buddy-buddy with people who mean absolutely nothing to me.’

I understand every single thing she feels but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to argue with her, to throw common sense in her face.

‘Listen to me,’ I say quietly. ‘You’re upset and you need time to come to terms with this—which is what I told them. They—’

‘When did you tell them that?’ Her question is rapier-sharp, cutting through me.

‘What?’

‘When did you have this conversation—about me—with the Harts?’

‘The other day. Does it matter?’

She presses her lips together and stares past me. ‘No.’ But it does. Something about that has unsettled her.

‘You know that’s why I came here.’

‘Sure. To spy on me. I’d just forgotten for a moment.’

I open my mouth to reject that but she keeps going. ‘How convenient for you that I fell into your bed. That must have made it so much easier.’

‘That’s incredibly unreasonable.’ I keep my voice quiet and low, calm even when a sense of outrage is bursting to life in my belly.

‘Is it? Within an hour of meeting me you knew more about me than you ever would have if you’d chosen to approach me any other way.’

‘I didn’t go to that bar intending to hit on you.’ I force myself to calm down. ‘You were the one who asked me to come home with you, remember?’

‘I didn’t know who you were,’ she reminds me. ‘But you did.’

‘Yes. And I felt bad for that. I didn’t intend to sleep with you, which is why I told you the truth.’

‘After you’d slept with me again.’

She glares at me and I feel as though I’m losing my grip on this, and her. ‘Listen, Avery, I don’t want to argue with you. Us sleeping together is a separate issue to the Harts. They’re your brothers and they want to meet you. I’ve explained that you need time, but they’re not particularly patient. I think you should prepare for that.’

‘I don’t want to meet them.’ She stands up then, her eyes hitting mine, a fierce, angry warning in them. ‘Thank you for coming to see me today.’ She throws a twenty onto the table and spins away, stalking through the restaurant.

No fucking way. I scrape my chair back and follow her, barely noticing when the waitress tries to get my attention. On the pavement I catch Avery, grabbing hold of her arm. ‘Hang on a second.’

She stops walking and I drop hold of her, but stay right where I am, so close I can smell her shampoo—like honey and lavender. Chasing her out of restaurants feels like something I’m getting good at.